Passengers enter the United terminal at New York's JFK International Airport on Jan. 6, 2014. / Stan Honda, AFP/Getty Images

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

by Bart Jansen, USA TODAY

Factions of the travel industry praised the $1 trillion spending bill that Congress is expected to approve this week, after dodging a higher fee proposed on international tickets.

Immigration inspection user fees had been poised to rise from $7 to $9 on each ticket under the Senate version of the legislation. But the final compromise dropped the fee, which would have raised $185 million per year. The reversal came after airlines, pilots and consumer groups voiced opposition to taxing airlines but not buses or trains for international arrivals.

Nicholas Calio, president of the industry group Airlines for America, thanked House leaders for supporting legislation "that does not increase taxes or fees on airlines or our customers."

The higher immigration fee would have followed an increase in the Transportation Security Administration fee that Congress approved in December. That fee is rising from $2.50 per leg of a trip, capped at $5, to $5.60 each way. The increase is expected to raise $12 billion over a decade.

Elsewhere, the legislation includes:

- $12.4 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration, which is $168 million less than this year. But lawmakers said the amount will fully fund the air-traffic control system and allow hiring and training of new controllers, after threatened tower closures and a one-week furlough last April.

- $10.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection, an increase of $110 million in part to fund 2,000 more officers at the busiest ports.

- $4.9 billion for TSA, a drop of $225 million despite the higher ticket fee.

- $3.35 billion for the Airport Improvement Program, which funds airport construction projects. Lawmakers siphoned money from the program last year to temporarily cover costs of air-traffic controllers.

Todd Hauptli, CEO of the American Association of Airport Executives, said the legislation would lay the foundation "to prevent airports from becoming choke points for passengers and goods."

Roger Dow, CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, praised the extra funding for Customs and Border Protection and instructions to the State Department to experiment with secure videoconferencing for visa interviews.

"Leaders in the two chambers have come a long way since the fiscal travails we saw in the fall," Dow said of the partial government shutdown in October.